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"Never memorize something that you can look up." We've outsourced memorising facts to knowing how to google it. Factor in calculators, spelling and grammar che

by dwd 8y ago

"Never memorize something that you can look up." We've outsourced memorising facts to knowing how to google it. Factor in calculators, spelling and grammar checkers - yoy can outsource a lot of memorising. Which doesn't help when you're sitting an IQ test.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
Time to update the tests. They are culture specific. If they aren't geared to modern life, they are no longer valid.
- dwd 8y ago
  Dropping some of the language questions would counter the Google effect. That would weigh it more towards logical, spatial, pattern identification and classification (stay clear of colours) type questions.
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    Creating good IQ tests is complicated. It's been years since I hung out in places where such was discussed in earnest on a regular basis, but I doubt it is quite that simple.
curious_fella1 8y ago
I saw a Sherlock Holmes quote on here once, I liked it and I think it's relevant to your comment so I'll post it here. "You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
  Elsewhere Conan Doyle had Holmes explain that he did not know, or care, whether the Sun circled the Earth or vice-versa, because that fact was irrelevant for his activity.
- dwd 8y ago
  Excellent quote, thanks
- jodrellblank 8y ago
  While it is "arguing from fictional evidence", there's something here about why "personal growth" annoys me. You'll find no end of people talking about things they do for their personal growth - an ongoing, endless growth. Exactly as if they have elastic walls and eidetic memories. (and no particular goal to grow towards, so they know when to stop, but that's another topic)
everybodyknows 8y ago
Grammar checkers being perhaps the most malign of the lot. When I swipe o,f,i,t,s into Google keyboard now, out comes "Of it's". The alternatives bar does not even present "its". Even single-tapping i,t,s results in auto-corruption to "it's". So syntactic distinction between the possessive and the contraction is being driven to extinction, by Google's half-smart AI.

by dwd 8y ago

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Time to update the tests. They are culture specific. If they aren't geared to modern life, they are no longer valid.

dwd 8y ago
Dropping some of the language questions would counter the Google effect. That would weigh it more towards logical, spatial, pattern identification and classification (stay clear of colours) type questions.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  Creating good IQ tests is complicated. It's been years since I hung out in places where such was discussed in earnest on a regular basis, but I doubt it is quite that simple.

curious_fella1 8y ago

I saw a Sherlock Holmes quote on here once, I liked it and I think it's relevant to your comment so I'll post it here. "You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
Elsewhere Conan Doyle had Holmes explain that he did not know, or care, whether the Sun circled the Earth or vice-versa, because that fact was irrelevant for his activity.
dwd 8y ago
Excellent quote, thanks
jodrellblank 8y ago
While it is "arguing from fictional evidence", there's something here about why "personal growth" annoys me. You'll find no end of people talking about things they do for their personal growth - an ongoing, endless growth. Exactly as if they have elastic walls and eidetic memories. (and no particular goal to grow towards, so they know when to stop, but that's another topic)

everybodyknows 8y ago

Grammar checkers being perhaps the most malign of the lot. When I swipe o,f,i,t,s into Google keyboard now, out comes "Of it's". The alternatives bar does not even present "its". Even single-tapping i,t,s results in auto-corruption to "it's". So syntactic distinction between the possessive and the contraction is being driven to extinction, by Google's half-smart AI.